Social Media Disasters

You would think that the biggest companies would get their Social Media campaigns planned to perfection and launched without any problems. However this is not always the case.

Follow the link below to read about some very unintended consequences.

http://smbp.uwaterloo.ca/social-media-disasters/

Peter Carr PhD the author of the above linked post is a professor in the Department of Managements Sciences at the University of Waterloo. His interests include the use of social media to improve business operations.

Customer Service Nightmares that destroy all marketing efforts

Think your company has a problem with a customer service issue?

Loblaws in Canada is being sued by one of their suppliers who, frustrated with the legal process, made a YouTube video that went viral and Loblaw’s is now being threatened with a national boycott by thousands of enraged customers who have taken the supplier’s side.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/digital-culture/businesss-yogurt-spat-with-loblaw-goes-viral/article6282414/

Her video can be see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceSndNlghKw

Free Shipping for eCommerce – Good Idea or Not?

Marina Strauss of the globe and mail wrote a great article December on Canadian online shopping sites that are reacting to what their American counterparts are doing online..

That article can be read here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/the-free-shipping-fray-makes-its-way-to-canada/article6003596/

Tell me your experiences with Free Shipping. Does your site offer it? What restrictions (if any) are there? Do you offer Free Shipping 12 months a year or is it seasonal? Did your site start out with Free Shipping or did you add that feature later? Why did you add it?

And most importantly, how has Free Shipping impacted your sales?

 

Number 1 on Google

Every spam email related to marketing always promises you the number 1 position on Google. The promise itself proves that it is spam because no one can guarantee you the number 1 position unless the keyword phrase is so unique “purple polka dotted spotted pigs that fly” that no one else would ever think of having a web page devoted to that keyword phrase.

Emarketing Canada has many clients who are at the number one position for many keyword phrases related to their products or services but we would never guarantee that position because the number of variables related to a number one position are almost infinite.

What we do promise is page one visibility on keywords that generate sales, not just visitors. In other words, our job is to make you money, not send just any old visitor to your site.

Visibility equals traffic. It does not guarantee sales.

SEO for highly competitive keywords

The more popular the keyword phrase, the more Web site pages your search engine finds relevant for that search. In some cases there could be hundreds of thousands or even millions of Web site pages your search engine displays as relevant for a particular search.

The problem for your business is only 10 of those results will show up on page one of the search. In such cases, your chances of being seen on page one are ZERO. You have a better chance of being hit by lightening or winning the lottery.

So what can your business do?

The short answer is there is no quick, easy, inexpensive solution to getting to page one visibility. Yes, there are dozens of strategies that can be used to improve your search engine visibility, each strategy requiring a lot of planning and some investment. And, you have to allow enough time to pass (weeks and sometimes months) to see if your work is being effective. But the bottom line is it takes time and money to get to page one. Especially if the current businesses on page one are competitors whose marketing expenditures are in the thousands or tens of thousands of dollars EVERY month.

You could match or exceed what your competitors are spending or you could work with an eMarketing firm such as ours where for over 14 years, we have developed efficient, cost effective strategies that work extremely well generating profitable results.

Website content is the most important marketing tool

Many new clients are convinced that visibility in the search engines is the one and only factor keeping them from generating more sales.

Nothing could be further from the truth!

After doing SEO for 14 years I can tell you that it is what happens after a visitor arrives on your site that determines if a sale will take place.

Many new clients are already receiving good targeted traffic BUT their Web site design/content is not responding to the traffic and so few, if any, sales occur. My most profitable clients became that way because they followed my recommendations on how to change their design and content to better respond to specific traffic groups that are visiting their site.

Keep in mind that few visitors want to or will visit all your pages. Reality is that people are busy and so want to find their information quickly and easily. The more services/products your business has, the larger and more detailed your site has to be.

Content is king and generates sales. Visibility generates traffic. There is a huge difference between those two metrics!

Does everyone see the same search results?

No they don’t!

I was at a trade show yesterday showing everyone my great visibility on Google Canada for the term “emarketing” and someone visiting my booth asked: “Is that visibility because we are in Montreal and your marketing business is located in Montreal?” and it was a great question.

So my kids (I have 6) in Ottawa, Tortonto and Vancouver did the same search and they all got the exact same results but the mix of sites on page one was slightly different in each case.

However, for local searches in your city, people a few kilometers away from you doing the same search will in fact see different results because businesses that are local to their location will show up before the local businesses near your location. As in everything to do with Google, there are always exceptions but, local search is really becoming localized.

Why Visibility on Google Matters?

If you go here: http://www.google.ca and search for emarketing, our Web site is the only marketing company in the world that shows up on page one out of over 33,000,000 search results.*

Imagine how visible we can make your company online.

Visit us at the Artypac Automation Trade show Tuesday, October 16 in Laval. Admission is free.

*Search results vary by day/time and your location which is why I always take a screen shot (see atached!)

Does my business need Twitter?

I did a pop poll of 40 business owners a few weeks ago all of whom had websites and none of whom received or sent a tweet in the last month. Some would say these business owners are out of touch. But are they?

The truth is that if your target market is not tweeting, why should you be “forced” into opening a twitter account just because the “buzz” is that EVERY online business needs to be tweeting all day, every day.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Your market determines which (if any) social media your company should use. The only people who think ALL social media are for EVERY online business are those who are selling the hype and not the reality.

Poll you existing clients. Ask them which social media they use and why. Since your clients are the ones who do busness with you, their feedback is what counts. But keep in mind trends change and what isn’t usefull today, may be popular tomorrow. i.e. redo that poll every 6 months!